Election rule talks make progress
After defeating the radicals, the ruling party turned to the moderates
Author: By Zaza Jgharkava
The National Movement signed an agreement with the opposition to improve the election environment. Increasing the MP mandates from 150 to 190 and allocating one million lari funding for the parties winning the elections – these are the issues that, according to the new vision of the ruling party, will improve the electoral environment.
Six political subjects signed the agreement, including the two parties that were part of the so-called Political Eight and demanded significant revision of the election code. This means that the New Rights and the Christian-Democrats accepted the rules of the game suggested by the government. In the Central Election Commission they signed a four-point agreement together with the United National Movement, the National-Democratic Party, the Democratic Party of Georgia and the political movement We Ourselves.
Based on the new agreement legislative changes should be made to the election code by October 2012. Before that, as the ruling party representatives say, the suggested changes will be presented to parties outside the Political Eight.
It appears that there is more to present than it seems at one glance. Instead of current parliamentary proportions – 75 majoritarians and 75 party list MPs, the new legislative body should include 107 party list and 83 majoritarian MPs. The opposition supported the proportion of 50 majoritarian and 100 party list MPs; for example, they demanded adding 25 mandates to the party list proportion.
According to the new suggestion, the government took into consideration the demand of the opposition, meaning that the number of party list mandates truly increased – but by 24 instead of the demanded 25 mandates.
Looking through the figure labyrinth, there is no favorable perspective for the opposition. As an experienced oppositionist from the Republican Party Davit Berdzenishvili says, the agreement means giving the constitutional majority to the government, “All of this means that if the government currently has a 79-percent majority in the parliament, in the next one it will have a 77-percent majority.”
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